Water-closet



(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

D. WHITBPORD.

WATBRGLOSBT.

No. 442,564. `Patented Deo. 9. 1890.

79 Q n--n (No Model.) 2 sheets-sheet 2.-

D. WHITBPORD.

WATER GLOSBT.

No. 442,564. lPafcenized Deo..9, 1890.

@enf-0274 ATENT rricn.

DAVID VTI'II'FEFORD, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

WATER-@Loser SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 442,564, dated December 9, 1890.

Application filed February 20, ISQO. Serial No. 341,094. (No model.) I

T0 all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, DAVID WHITEFORD, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a new and useful Improvementin Tater-Closets, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to an improvement in the class of water-closets in which provision is made when the communication between the dushing-tank and bowl is opened for the flushing operation for relieving the trap of its air-bound condition, thereby to produce ready evacuation of the bowl into the soilpipe.

The primary object of my improvement is to provide a simple but thoroughly'effeotive and reliably operative contrivance which shall serve to produce rapid discharge of the contents of thebowl when the flushing-water is admitted to it from the tank; and it is furthermore myvobject to provide means for producing at will Siphon action in the ushingtank, which means shall effectually trap the communication with the tank of the soilpipe.

My further object is to provide a generallyimproved construction of water-closet.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure I is a view in partly sectional and broken elevation of a water-closet of my improved construction; Fig. 2, a broken view in elevation of the bowl portion,'showing a modified construction of the main feature of my improvement; and Fig. 3, a similar View showing the siphon mechanism in the tank in a modified form.

A is the bowl, and B is the trap connecting the bowl with the leg fr, which may be a part of the soil-pipe or a branch leading into it, all of which parts may be of any well-known or suitable construction for the kind of apparatus to which my improvement relates.

C is the overhead tank to contain the water for flushing, the supply of which through a pipe q may be automatically controlled by common means for the purpose in the form of a valve p, regulated by a float 1J', connected with the valve. A pipe D communicates at one end with the flushing-rim of the bowl A and extends into the tank C, wherein itis coiled at its upper end into preferably two convolutions, as shown, terminating in a leg o. A pipe E, extending, like the pipe D, into the tank, similarly coiled, and terminating in a leg n, leads from the tank into the leg r or soil-pipe, and is provided with a coneshaped termination F at its lower end, where it is joined to the leg r or soil-pipe. This conical terminus of the pipe E, which forms the main feature of my improvement, and which I desire to secure yby Letters Patentirrespective of the other mechanism provided with the tank for producing the flushing operation, may flare in a downward direction, as shown in Fig. l, or in an upward direction, as shown in Fig. 2. If the former, I have found the most effective operation to be produced by making the conical terminus F not less than about seven inches long, and by causing it to flare from its initial or tay pered extremity gradually about to the diameter of the pipe r, so that in communicating with the latter, as shown in Fig. I, at its upper or curved end, it will be somewhat narrower at its base than the diameter of the pipe and would equal that diameter if extended ilaringly, as indicated by the dotted line o@ to the line 03 forming the upper terminus of the vertical portion of the pipe r or the lower line of its junction with the trap B.

Each pipe D and E communicates from a point in the upper part of one of its convolutions, forming Siphon-traps, either7 separately or, as shown, through a common connectingpipe fm, having a branch tube m', with an airtrap G in the tank C. This trap comprises a stationary chamber Z, closed at its base and open at its top, which extends short of the water-line in the tank and containing a narrower piston-like chamber Z-, closed at its top and open at its base and fitting inside the chamber Z, whereby it may be moved up and down therein, as through the medium of a suitably-f ulcru med lever 7o, controlled th rough achain t, connected at its lower end with le- Ver mechanism 7L at the bowl, and which may be of the well-known construction, manipulated from a handle g. The branch pipe m leads through the base of the chamber l Yof the trap G beyond the water-line in the tank Z2 into the hollow piston Z', and in the chamber Z I provide mercury to act as an effect- IOO ive seal'between the said chamberand branch m and control the action of the siphon, operating as hereinafter described.

Constructed as described, the operation 4of the apparatus is asrfollows: As water enters the tank C through the supply-pipe q it enters the coils of the pipes D and E at the legs o and n and lodges in the bases of the convolutions, thereby forming a water-seal in each. lVhen to flush the bowl the handle g is manipulated, it produces raising of the hollow piston Z, thereby increasing the dimensions of the air-space within it above the water-line` in the chamber Z, and by the partial vacuumthus provided inducing the air contained in the convolutions of the pipes D and E between their contained water-seals andthe legs o and n to escape into the enlarged air-chamber produced by raising` the hollowr piston Z above the mercury-line in the chamber l, and thus permitting the air to escape through the water above the mercury. Then of course the water in the tank siphons through the convolutions into the pipes D and E and by way thereof into the bowl A and pipe if. lf the pipe E were of the same diameter as shown with relation to the pipe lr throughout its entire length, obviously the stream emerging from it would be considerably smaller in diameter than the pipe i' and would exert very little, if any, suction effect at the openingf between the trap B and soilpipe or branch thereof; but, owing to the conical form of the terminus F, the stream emerging from it expands, owing to its forcibleimpingement against the air contained in the cone to conform to the cone, and thus lills the diameter of the pipe lr at the base of its communication with the trap B, thereby sucking the air out lof the trap, relieving the airbound condition thereof and drawing the contents of the bowl into the soil-pipe. The same result may be produced by causing the cone F, as shown in Fig, 2, to taper in a downward direction, provided its upper flaring end be joined to the pipe r inside the latter and preferably at an enlargement c therein, where or about where it meets the trap B at or near the base of the openingf between the trap and soil-pipe, and then the pipe E should communicate with the pipe r, as shown, laterally thereof at the enlargement e, and should be slightly increased in diameter, as shown at y, where it joins the soilpipe. Then with this construction the trap G in the tank is manipulated in the manner described to remove the air in the pipes D and E, the water from the tank is drawn through the last-named pipes into the bowl by way of its flushing-rim and into the pipe o' by way of the downwardly-tapering conical rim F. .From the conical rim F the water from the pipe E enters the pipe i' and converges in detween it and the opcningf, whereby its action effectually draws the contents of the bowl through the trap B.

By way of illustrating that my improvement afforded by the conical medium F may be used to advantage with other forms of the tank-evacuating apparatus than that presented in Fig. l, I have shown in Fig. 3 another form of that apparatus. The pipe E and cone F remain as in Fig. l or Fig. 2, and accordingly the pipe E terminates in the tank in a coil ending in aleg n. rlhe flushing-pipe D, however, terminates in the tank in a single Siphon-bend d, and near its entrance into the tank at the base of the latter itis provided with a` lateral branch d', leading vertically into the base of the tank, where a heavy cap d2 is suspended over it from a lever 7e', controlled from the chain c', and which is normally in position to permit the cap d2 to rest on the mouth of the branch d to close it.

`'l`he pipe D is caused to communicate inside the tank with an upper point in the convoluted end of the pipe E through a branch pipe m2, practically the equivalent of the branch pipe m, and which should be provided in its body with a small perforation c and should be led into the pipe D from its top below the branch d. rThus, when the flushing operation is desired,by manipulatingthechain q the cap is raised, permitting the tank-water to enter the pipe D and by drawing the air through the branch m2 relieve the coil of the pipe E, thereby permitting the latter to act at its conical terminus F in the manner described. The perforation c in the branch m2 improves the action by drawing water from the tank, through the medium of which the better to pull the air. The purpose of the Siphon-bend d is to cause the action of emptying the tank to continue if the cap d2 be only momentarily removed from its seat on the branch d', as it is likely to be.

\Vhat I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

l. In a water-closet in which Water from a tank is controllably supplied through pipes leading respectively into the bowl for flush ing and into the waste-pipe for relieving the bowl-trap, a hollow cone F, forming the discharge end of the said water-supply pipe leading to the waste-pipe, substantially as Y described.

2. In a water-closet, the combination, with the iiushing-tank and bowl, of a pipe D, leading from the flushing-tank to the howl, apipe E, leading from the tlushing-tankto thebowl discharge-pipe and terminating at its lower.

to the bowl, a hollow cone F, communicatingv IOC IIO

at its flaring extremity with the pipe fr near its upper end, above the communication therewith of the said trap, a pipe E, leading from the tank and connected at its lower end with the upper tapering end of the cone, and means, substantially as described, for controlling the discharge of water from the tank through the pipes D and E, substantially as set forth.

4. In a water-closet, the combination, with the ilushing-tank C and bowl A, provided with a trap B, leading into a waste-pipe i", 0f pipes D and E, extending` at their upper ends into the tank and terminating therein in siphon-traps and leading at their lower ends respectively into the bowl and waste-pipe,an air-trap G in the tank, communicating with both siphontraps and connected with lever mechanism operated from nearthe bowl, and a hollow cone F at the lower end of the pipe E, substantially as described.

5. In a water-eloset, the combination, with the iushingtank C and bowl A, provided with a trap B, leading into a waste-pipe r, of pipes D and E, extending at their upper ends into the tank and terminating therein in siphontraps and ,leading at their lower ends respectively into the bowl and waste-pipe, an air-trap G in the tank, communicating with both siphon-traps and charged with mercury and connected with lever mechanism oper# ated fro'm near the bowl,and a hollow cone F at the lower end of the pipe E, substantially as described.

In a water-closet, the combination, with the flushing-tank C and bowl A, provided with a trap B, leading into a waste-pipe o", of pipes D and E,exteuding at their upper ends into the tank and terminating therein in double-trapped Siphon-coils, and leading at their lower ends respectively into the bowl and waste-pipe, an air-trap G in the tank charged with mercury and communicating with the Siphon-coils between the traps thereof and connected with lever mechanism 0perated from near the bowl, and a hollow cone F, connected at its tapering extremity with the lower end of the pipe E and at its Haring extremity with the upper end of the pipe r, substantially as described.

v DAVID VVHI'FEFORD.

In presence of- J. W. DYRENFORTH, M. J. FRosr. 

